


New Leaves

by Morbane



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Coming of Age, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Fluff, Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-27 01:10:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14414406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morbane/pseuds/Morbane
Summary: This is a work based on a vague impression of "Monster Girl Encyclopedia". It is for a crack prompt and may not be satisfying to fans of Monster Girl Encyclopedia.





	New Leaves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [luckybarton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckybarton/gifts).



> Happy Brave New Bork, luckybarton!
> 
> Thanks for the look-over, Rosencrantz!

On her fifteenth birthday, Aisha's parents gave her the Book.

"Now you are ready to go out into the world," Aisha's mother said, and Aisha had been so excited to hear those long-awaited words that she mouthed them along with her.

"Thank you," Aisha said solemnly, and she held the Book for a moment without opening it. It didn't feel quite right to put it down, not when she'd waited so long to open it, so she tucked it under her arm and rushed back over to the mirror in the bathroom to look herself over one last time.

She was wearing a scarf tied across her hair so that the thick indigo roots were visible. Where it grew out of her scalp, Aisha's hair was not like her father's or mother's, but more like leaves or rushes. Further out from her scalp, the ends withered and frayed, separating out into downy, silky strands. If she chose particular hats or scarves to wear, Aisha looked like she had the same kind of hair as her father, only longer and frizzier and deeply dyed.

But right now, because of tonight, she wanted to make sure the roots showed clearly, so she pushed the scarf back, went back to where her parents were waiting, propped the Book up on a shelf, and opened it.

The first page of the Book was also a mirror, of a sort.

As her face formed on the page, Aisha remembered to smile, just in time. Then the shining glint of the page faded, the area around her face turning into a dull, ordinary paper-cream, and her portrait was locked in.

Now it was her Book.

"You look lovely," her father said. She would have rolled her eyes, just a little, but she was too distracted by the magic of the Book.

Her parents had shown her their Books. She wasn't allowed to open them on her own, but you didn't need to open a Book to see its dog-ears wave from the fore-edge of the pages, and the top. When she was out in the world, she would have to hide the Book away, because ordinary books didn't have dog ears with fur on them. Ordinary books just had pages folded at the corner.

(Still, Aisha wondered, non-monster people must have seen monster Books, because otherwise how would they know to call them that?)

The dog ears were just starting to sprout on Aisha's Book, spaced irregularly through its contents. Ten of them. That meant that there were ten other monsters close to Aisha in the world, perhaps no more than a mile away. She was so excited to meet them.

When she went out into the world, she would hide all but the ends of her hair, just as Aisha's mother had hid the gills at her neck and Aisha's father had hid his ankle-spurs. But every monster had a Book full of portraits, so that monsters could find each other and the non-monsters would never know.

Aisha opened the book carefully to one of its dog-eared pages. She smiled into the eyes of someone else, about fifteen like herself, with horns sticking through his hair and red-pupilled eyes.

"They might wear glasses, when you meet them," Aisha's father murmured. "Or contact lenses."

Aisha looked up at her father. "Don't you know them?"

"No. Maybe they're travelling through the area. Or they moved here while we were raising you."

At birth, monsters came in wondrous shapes. They grew into a mostly-human appearance; most could pass for human at a distance by around ten years of age. Not only had Aisha's hair and nails been purple since she was a baby, but her skin too. By custom, monsters raised their children away from the rest of the world in small family groups. It had been a long time since Aisha's parents had left their den.

She had spent so long wondering what it would be like to go into the world that other, obvious questions had completely escaped her. For example: now that she was leaving, might her parents leave too?

Secluded from the world for fifteen years, except for the occasional visitor, did her parents know enough to have prepared her for it?

But yet again, she was distracted by the Book. One of the dog ears slid along the edge of its page and jutted, pricked with alertness, from the top of the Book. That meant that that particular monster was near.

Aisha opened the page. A serene face looked back at her, a woman's face with smooth brown hair and lightly green-webbed fingers and - gills.

"Oh!" Aisha said, and turned to her mother.

Her mother spread her fingers. "They faded years ago," she said quietly. "The Book changes more slowly. I miss them."

"Show me your portrait," Aisha demanded, already hurriedly thumbing through to the other quivering dog-ear. This time she recognized her father instantly, despite the horn she saw, only a lump on his forehead now.

Her parents brought out their own Books, and there they were on each front page, their fifteen-year-old selves, their nervous, hopeful expressions matching Aisha's own. Her parents had shown her many other portraits before, but never these.

"I'm supposed to do something now, aren't I?" she asked them.

"Yes," Aisha's father said, and reached out to his picture in Aisha's own Book. When he touched it, it glowed silver again for a moment, like the mirror, and a curlicued frame danced around the outside.

Aisha raised her Book to her mother's hand so that she could do the same.

"Done," she said, in wonder, staring at the Book.

"Not quite," Aisha's mother said, and captured Aisha's hand. "There's a new page in our Books, too."

And there Aisha was, staring from the page, and she touched the Books to confirm that she had been there, had been Found.

"Congratulations on your new beginning, Aisha," Aisha's father said. "You will never be far, when we have you here."

She nodded solemnly again, thumb stroking the dog-ears of her parents' pages. She couldn't quite bring herself to say it, but she knew, when she was out in the world, away from them, she would open her Book to these pages over and over again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work for "Monster Girl Encyclopedia", a cute, G-rated computer game in which the protagonist, Aisha the monster girl, travels through the world trying to find other monsters to help her with her goals. Completion of the game requires finding all the monsters. The game is light-hearted but also explores themes of tribalism, us vs. them, and fear of difference. There was a short anime.


End file.
